Feedback
Thank you for putting up this great course together. Cannot praise enough how much it saves times and puts an order into studying. Went through the practice exam today. It seems to be only a recreation and easy version of past exam questions. Seeing how the difficulty of exam is increasing over time I expect a tougher exam than this.
Following are errors I found in practice exam:
- Q11: Seems like probability of loss (f) of option 1 is incorrect. It should be 2% (1/50) not 4%
- Q12: Headers in the table are wrong. There is no MV for 2016 and no AV for 2017
- Q12 solution: part a refers HTM AV 2017 as 3500 while part b uses 2900 and 3000 with no mention of 3500
- Q13a solution: On page 42 only 2923 (Capital C excess deduction incorrectly referred as Capital B & C excess deduction) is deducted to calculate Capital Available. There needs to be additional deduction of 2560 for Capital B & C excess deduction
- Q14: Question does not mention about which year’s excess/deficiency is to be calculated. It is only after you look at solution you realize it is AY2016
- Q17a: Question asks to calculate ERC while solution only calculates EQ risk exposure
Comments
Thank you very much for this feedback. It's great to hear you're finding the course helpful!
One other person emailed me that they too thought the practice exam was too easy. I thought about creating 2 practice exams, 1 that's easier and 1 that's harder. I may keep this one then but make another one that's harder. I know people might not have time to do 2 full practice exams, but I'll consider putting it out there for the next sitting and see if people think that's helpful.
And thank you very much pointing out the errors. I will make corrections for the next sitting but also put a link in the wiki to your post for everyone else to see.
Oh, and you probably know this already, but make sure to look at the 2018.Spring exam. I kept most of it out of the course content so people would have a real exam to practice on that they weren't familiar with.
Thank you Graham. Appreciate your help
Spring 2018 exam is the reason I am getting nervous and probably extra critical on practice exam. I found Spring 2018 to be different in that there were fewer calculation questions and 'previous exam-type' questions.
Oh, ok. Well, I can understand getting nervous before the exam. The feedback I got on the 2018.Spring exam is that it was fair, not too hard, not too easy. You're right that there were fewer calculation problems versus normal, and that surprised me, but I suppose there will be variations from exam to exam. In the past it has varied from about 23% calculations (2013.Fall) all the way up to 39% (2015.Fall) BattleActs users had a good pass rate on 2018.Spring although there were a few users who were well-prepared but unfortunately didn't pass. I put that down to a bit of bad luck.
I do think there's an element of luck involved, especially if you're very near the pass mark. But there are a few easy things you can do to boost your probability of passing. You should pay close attention to the suggestions I give in the following wiki article:
Now, if it were me in my younger days, I would've scoffed at that advice! I'm telling you to bring pens and a watch and a certain type of calculator. Silly and obvious right? But now that I'm older (and maybe a tiny bit more mature??!!) I realize that little bits of advice like that from someone who's been there can be invaluable.
I remember I failed Part 5 because I ran out of time. That was the only reason. If I'd had 15 more minutes, or better yet, if I'd managed my time better, I would've passed no problem. And indeed on my next attempt, I finished 20 minutes early, and that was with a bathroom break! The difference was that I'd managed my time. I had a watch that I set to 11:45 when the reading period started, and I spent the first 5 minutes of the writing period dividing my time into 4 one-hour segments as I described in the above wiki article. You should definitely practice taking the point-value sheet and dividing it into one-hour segments.
And make sure to review my post-exam analysis for 2018.Spring. You can find it here:
If you've already covered all the material, it will be a very good use of your time to take a short break from working problems and think about exam strategy.
I would guess that you are better prepared than you think. Of course, nothing is going to truly set your mind at ease until you see your candidate number on the pass list! And I have every reason to believe that you'll be on it!
Slay the beast!
Hi MIC,
just a note on the Q13a : the deduction from capital available is in fact correct @2923. By removing the 2923 from C-class asset, the ratio of B&C falls below the 40% threshold.
Hi Graham,
For Question 18d) shouldn't severity as a % of premium be 1000/150?
Also noticed solution to 18d, seems like premium and severity are mixed up, however I don't agree it should be 1000/150, shouldn't it be (1000-150)/150 if premium is 150 and severity being 1000.
Nevermind, just noticed this has been commented in another thread
Yes, and just so everyone knows where it is:
Sorry, Thanathos52, I think I missed your question, but see link in above post.